'Buzz' around Leeds making it easier to attract talented staff, says Addleshaw Goddard boss
The growing reputation of Leeds as a centre for financial services and other industries is making it easier for a major law firm in the city to attract talented staff.
Lucy Sturrock, head of the Leeds office of commercial law firm Addleshaw Goddard, said the city’s growing reputation is helping the business.
"Leeds has a buzz about it and feels like it is going places,” she told The Yorkshire Post. "It is also attracting talent into Leeds and that helps us. Leeds has a huge university population and graduates are staying in Leeds, which is helping our recruitment.
"We’re getting some really good quality candidates wanting to stay and work in Leeds whereas perhaps they might have gone to London previously.”
Earlier this year, Leeds City Council chief executive Ed Whiting said the city is in an exciting position as it looks to continue to build up a ‘Northern Square Mile’ parallel to the City of London.
He said: “With the Chancellor’s Leeds Reforms for Financial Services and with institutions like the Bank of England, the Financial Conduct Authority, and the National Wealth Fund all based here, Leeds is uniquely positioned to lead the way and build a modern, tech-enabled Northern Square Mile.”
Mr Whiting said Leeds’ financial services sector has the potential to create 50,000 new jobs over the next decade.
Ms Sturrock said Addleshaw Goddard, which traces its roots in Leeds back to 1775, is taking a proactive approach to issues like the use of artificial intelligence (AI).
She said an internal AI system used by the company across the world has recorded more than one million searches and has been established in such a way to make use of the firm’s vast internal stores of legal knowledge and filter out less reliable information.
She said that even as AI tools develop, she believes there will remain a vital need for qualified lawyers.
"I think AI will change the way legal services are provided but I think people will still need a lawyer to talk you through the risks,” she said.
"You still need a legal brain to analyse the information and ensure it is accurate and work out a strategy.
"When a business is facing a big decision, I wouldn’t want ChatGPT to give me the answer about what might be a transformational project or a dispute. I don’t think lawyers will be replaced because people will need the confidence that information is right and how it fits into theit strategy.”
Addleshaw Goddard has set ambitions to become a £1 billion a year turnover business by 2030 – with its most recent annual results revealing it is currently at £550m – while it was recently named UK Law Firm of the Year at the British Legal Awards.
Internationally, the firm boasts more than 5,000 clients including hundreds of listed companies and represents many of the largest firms based in Yorkshire.
Ms Sturrock said: “We are lucky to have clients who have been with us for decades – the building societies, the banks, the institutional landlords and also some of the big retailers.”